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Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 171, NO. 17 | Thursday September 16, 2010
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
7 · Lifestyle
11 · Sudoku
12 · Classifieds
16 · Sports
High cost: Demolition of
Chevron for new housing
serves no purpose. PAGE 4
Spoken word: USC’s Festival
de Flor y Canto brings writers
to campus. PAGE 8
Kelvin Kuo | Daily Trojan
Safety first · Paul Kells, president of Safe Communities Canada, gives a plaque recognizing
USC as a safe community to Todd R. Dickey, senior vice president of administration.
By natalie chau
Daily Trojan
USC was officially designated a safe community
Wednesday morning by the World Health Organization
Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion in
a ceremony in front of Tommy Trojan.
A WHO safe community designation indicates that a
community has shown a strong network of collaboration
that works toward the safety and wellness of its residents.
President C.L. Max Nikias, Vice President for Student
Affairs Michael L. Jackson and members of the U.S.
National Safety Council and Safe Communities Canada
were in attendance at the ceremony.
“It’s about personal safety, but it is much more than that.
It is about helping each other to flourish; it’s about looking
out for each other,” Nikias said. “I’m excited that now, on
a global stage, with this official recognition our USC com-munity
has joined with other neighborhoods around the
world.”
Donna Stein-Harris, director of the National Safety
Council’s Safe Communities America efforts, spoke about
USC’s place as a safety example for other universities.
“We know that USC is up to the task of sustaining this
momentum for years to come,” Stein-Harris said. “The en-thusiasm
and inclusiveness is exemplary.”
Paul Kells, the founder and president of Safe
Communities Canada, presented the university with a
WHO flag and the official plaque designating the univer-sity
as a safe community.
“You have truly engaged the community around you,”
Kells said. “That is what is so magnificent, and that is ac-tually
the spirit and the framework that this will succeed
with in the future.”
USC officially
receives WHO
designation
The safe communities ceremony Wednesday
featured a speech by President C.L. Max Nikias.
By Jacqueline Kurth
Daily Trojan
The Von KleinSmid Center, a
central building for classes and
student meetings on campus,
has recently been upgraded
with new square desks and
adjustable chairs as part of a
larger initiative from the Office
of the Provost to update learning
spaces on campus.
“The idea behind it was to
look at learning spaces and
see if they fit the needs of the
students and the teachers in
the 21st century,” said Joseph
Cevetello, director of learning
environments from Information
Technology Services.
The decision to change the
desks and chairs was made
after a series of interviews with
students and faculty, when ITS
decided that mobile and adaptive
desks would be added to many of
the VKC rooms.
“One of the things that came
out of the meetings was that
people felt there were a lot of
challenges in the VKC learning
spaces,” Cevetello said. “The
rooms were uncomfortable and
the seating was not appropriate,
and the spaces seemed very
inf lexible with what you could
do.”T
he new desks are meant
to provide a more updated
classroom that better fit the
students and teachers, Cevetello
said. All of the desks and chairs
now have wheels and the chairs
are adjustable to offer more
comfort to a wider range of
students.
“In the other classroom
buildings we tried out other
designs,” Cevetello said. “In [the
Social Sciences building], we
went with tables and chairs and
also some new individual desks.”
This upgrade, part of an
ongoing initiative, has already
renovated 53 classrooms, three
auditoriums and three computer
labs.
The overall goal is to renovate
all 200 learning spaces —
classrooms and computer labs —
on campus.
Yet students have had mixed
reactions regarding the new
desks at VKC. Although some
students said the furniture
looks updated and gives the
classrooms a high-tech feel,
others are concerned with their
effectiveness in providing decent
VKC renovated with square desks and new chairs
The changes were made after
interviews with students and
faculty who use the classrooms.
| see Desks, page 6 |
By Karla Robinson
Daily Trojan
Psychologists from USC, the
University of Texas at Austin
and Beijing Normal University
recently have found that some
of our understanding of memory
retention is incorrect.
In a study published online
on Sept. 9 in Science, researchers
at these schools discovered that
memory increases when similar
patterns are repeated for strength
rather than when multiple
varying patterns are made.
The long-standing belief held
by psychologists maintains that
information is best remembered
when attained or learned in
varying contexts, which creates
multiple patterns to remember
the information.
Gui Xue, a research assistant
and professor of psychology at
Study says
memory is
repetitive
Scientists from USC and other
universities collaborated to
study memory patterns.
| see Memory, page 6 |
By Cynthia Ruiz
Daily Trojan
Named by Time magazine as
one of the most inf luential people
in the world, Annenberg School
for Communication & Journalism
Innovator in Residence Jaron
Lanier joined Dean Ernest Wilson
Wednesday in an open forum
about technology in modern
society.
In “Self and reality: Finding
clarity in the digital noise,”
Lanier discussed his past work
and current thoughts on today’s
technology. Called the “father
of virtual reality,” Lanier has
been involved with notable
innovations and developments
with software and hardware for
decades.
“[We’re] pursuing the old
dream of trying to come up with
the right designs for wonderful
experience in the furthering
along the line of virtual reality,”
Lanier said.
Lanier was chosen as the
2010 innovator in residence
after recommendations were
submitted by faculty. He is
Annenberg’s second innovator
in residence, after Irving
USC hosts
innovator
in residence
Jaron Lanier spoke at
Annenberg Wednesday about
the evolving role of technology.
| see lanier, page 3 |
Neha Jain | Daily Trojan
Desks · Students in class at the Von KleinSmid Center are using new
desks this semester after ITS’ efforts to make classrooms more adaptive.

Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 171, NO. 17 | Thursday September 16, 2010
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
7 · Lifestyle
11 · Sudoku
12 · Classifieds
16 · Sports
High cost: Demolition of
Chevron for new housing
serves no purpose. PAGE 4
Spoken word: USC’s Festival
de Flor y Canto brings writers
to campus. PAGE 8
Kelvin Kuo | Daily Trojan
Safety first · Paul Kells, president of Safe Communities Canada, gives a plaque recognizing
USC as a safe community to Todd R. Dickey, senior vice president of administration.
By natalie chau
Daily Trojan
USC was officially designated a safe community
Wednesday morning by the World Health Organization
Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion in
a ceremony in front of Tommy Trojan.
A WHO safe community designation indicates that a
community has shown a strong network of collaboration
that works toward the safety and wellness of its residents.
President C.L. Max Nikias, Vice President for Student
Affairs Michael L. Jackson and members of the U.S.
National Safety Council and Safe Communities Canada
were in attendance at the ceremony.
“It’s about personal safety, but it is much more than that.
It is about helping each other to flourish; it’s about looking
out for each other,” Nikias said. “I’m excited that now, on
a global stage, with this official recognition our USC com-munity
has joined with other neighborhoods around the
world.”
Donna Stein-Harris, director of the National Safety
Council’s Safe Communities America efforts, spoke about
USC’s place as a safety example for other universities.
“We know that USC is up to the task of sustaining this
momentum for years to come,” Stein-Harris said. “The en-thusiasm
and inclusiveness is exemplary.”
Paul Kells, the founder and president of Safe
Communities Canada, presented the university with a
WHO flag and the official plaque designating the univer-sity
as a safe community.
“You have truly engaged the community around you,”
Kells said. “That is what is so magnificent, and that is ac-tually
the spirit and the framework that this will succeed
with in the future.”
USC officially
receives WHO
designation
The safe communities ceremony Wednesday
featured a speech by President C.L. Max Nikias.
By Jacqueline Kurth
Daily Trojan
The Von KleinSmid Center, a
central building for classes and
student meetings on campus,
has recently been upgraded
with new square desks and
adjustable chairs as part of a
larger initiative from the Office
of the Provost to update learning
spaces on campus.
“The idea behind it was to
look at learning spaces and
see if they fit the needs of the
students and the teachers in
the 21st century,” said Joseph
Cevetello, director of learning
environments from Information
Technology Services.
The decision to change the
desks and chairs was made
after a series of interviews with
students and faculty, when ITS
decided that mobile and adaptive
desks would be added to many of
the VKC rooms.
“One of the things that came
out of the meetings was that
people felt there were a lot of
challenges in the VKC learning
spaces,” Cevetello said. “The
rooms were uncomfortable and
the seating was not appropriate,
and the spaces seemed very
inf lexible with what you could
do.”T
he new desks are meant
to provide a more updated
classroom that better fit the
students and teachers, Cevetello
said. All of the desks and chairs
now have wheels and the chairs
are adjustable to offer more
comfort to a wider range of
students.
“In the other classroom
buildings we tried out other
designs,” Cevetello said. “In [the
Social Sciences building], we
went with tables and chairs and
also some new individual desks.”
This upgrade, part of an
ongoing initiative, has already
renovated 53 classrooms, three
auditoriums and three computer
labs.
The overall goal is to renovate
all 200 learning spaces —
classrooms and computer labs —
on campus.
Yet students have had mixed
reactions regarding the new
desks at VKC. Although some
students said the furniture
looks updated and gives the
classrooms a high-tech feel,
others are concerned with their
effectiveness in providing decent
VKC renovated with square desks and new chairs
The changes were made after
interviews with students and
faculty who use the classrooms.
| see Desks, page 6 |
By Karla Robinson
Daily Trojan
Psychologists from USC, the
University of Texas at Austin
and Beijing Normal University
recently have found that some
of our understanding of memory
retention is incorrect.
In a study published online
on Sept. 9 in Science, researchers
at these schools discovered that
memory increases when similar
patterns are repeated for strength
rather than when multiple
varying patterns are made.
The long-standing belief held
by psychologists maintains that
information is best remembered
when attained or learned in
varying contexts, which creates
multiple patterns to remember
the information.
Gui Xue, a research assistant
and professor of psychology at
Study says
memory is
repetitive
Scientists from USC and other
universities collaborated to
study memory patterns.
| see Memory, page 6 |
By Cynthia Ruiz
Daily Trojan
Named by Time magazine as
one of the most inf luential people
in the world, Annenberg School
for Communication & Journalism
Innovator in Residence Jaron
Lanier joined Dean Ernest Wilson
Wednesday in an open forum
about technology in modern
society.
In “Self and reality: Finding
clarity in the digital noise,”
Lanier discussed his past work
and current thoughts on today’s
technology. Called the “father
of virtual reality,” Lanier has
been involved with notable
innovations and developments
with software and hardware for
decades.
“[We’re] pursuing the old
dream of trying to come up with
the right designs for wonderful
experience in the furthering
along the line of virtual reality,”
Lanier said.
Lanier was chosen as the
2010 innovator in residence
after recommendations were
submitted by faculty. He is
Annenberg’s second innovator
in residence, after Irving
USC hosts
innovator
in residence
Jaron Lanier spoke at
Annenberg Wednesday about
the evolving role of technology.
| see lanier, page 3 |
Neha Jain | Daily Trojan
Desks · Students in class at the Von KleinSmid Center are using new
desks this semester after ITS’ efforts to make classrooms more adaptive.